Library Technician

My lib'n sent off more table of contents for a few of our serials. We are working it out as we go. Of course it isn't planned. She originally asked people to say if they wanted to be on a mailing list for the title but realised she needn't, she'll just keep the mailing lists as she sets them up and only take people off them if they ask to be removed. We are supplying the articles that are requested but now she's worried that it will create too much work. I said not to worry, if that happened she'd just have to send off an email saying we can't provide copies but that the staff are welcome to drop down to the library for copies. She is only this afternoon started working out which ones she won't be sending out contents lists for. Weekly news type serials won't be offered. They are covered by another index anyway. She was going to keep the emails in the email folders, created new folders for each serial, tucking all the emails away accordingly. Then decided we could save them as documents instead and delete them from the email folders. Slowly it will all smooth out and really start working. And we have stats. A spreadsheet I created.

I think she thought I'd hate the extra photocopying but it doesn't bother me, work is just work. We've sent out 14 articles from three mags, and it just means I'm not hunting around looking for work to do and getting bored.

Madame has decided one of my suggestions for promotion is ok! She is sending contents lists from our current subs out to people in the organisation. She makes it easy and copies and pastes the lists from the web sites, and is making mailing lists of people in different sections, but if the serial doesn't have a contents list on the net it won't get sent out. So far. She could decide to get me to type them up.

We have already have about 5 emails back on the first day saying they are interested and we have one request for articles already.

Part of my suggestion involved buying a scanner and scanning the lists and then they could be emailed out and that way we can do all of them, but that does require money and we don't have any. I wonder if she will give credit to me? I'll let you know...

I've been really interested in the reactions to the Monowi Library story Pop.: 1 Plus 5,000 Volumes by Stephanie Simon in the LA Times. Lots of people have linked to the article and some have even commented on it. Most of the comments have been about the emotional reactions people have to the story, 'warm fuzzy' or sad. A few have linked it to the story about Salinas libraries being threatened with closure about the same time. A lot of the library community have noted the story but not commented on it.

In some ways I suppose library staff don't feel the story really fits in with 'real' libraries. It isn't funded. No one gets paid. There's no circulation system or collection development policy. Monowi Library is not fighting for existence as many libraries are. It isn't threatened with closure. It isn't being used by politicians to score point on their way to election. People aren't having massive fundraisers or donating thousands of dollars from their golf winnings in order to get enough press to guilt trip the funding body....

Someone saw a need and filled it. Luckily Elsie had another source of income so she could open the library without funding. Without funding no one gets paid to work there so you can't keep control of the collection so therefore you don't need a circulation system which certainly keeps costs down even more. Without anyone keeping an eye on the people borrowing no one would know if the books aren't coming back, but then we can't really control that effectively in public libraries anyway. If anyone is taking the books and selling them elsewhere no one will know. Certainly cuts down on the stress levels. I suppose some books are donated which would keep the numbers up enough that visitors will find something to read.

I just wish I had a source of income that would allow me to run a library / free book exchange like that. At this point I need to work full time and so I can't do the same things as Elsie. I like what she does. Feels very anarchic. In the original taking-personal-responsibility type of way. I envy Elsie and I'll send a few books to her library to keep that dream alive.

Be careful next time you decide a convenient lie to a customer can provide you with a shortcut to explaining policy, you never know who is across the other side of the counter. A little while ago a lib'n at my local library was mortally embarrassed when she was caught out in a lie. They were charging me an odd amount for an ILL and when I questioned how they came up with that amount she just said they pass on charges that are passed on to them. If she had simply explained the policy fully which involved an admin charge I wouldn't have questioned it. Imagine how the silly thing felt when I said 'I'm a library technician and I know how the charging works. Public libraries and the State Library have reciprocal ILL and you won't get any charges for that. Actually you should have guessed by the fact that I just gave you a Kinetica print out of the locations. Don't try to pull the wool over your readers eyes.' Classic.

Library staff have no right to decide how much effort they put into a particular job based on whether they like the person or the job. Stopping short on a job for any reason isn't acceptable. My lib'n was asked to get a thesis that had been written for an overseas university and she had trouble with it. I'd started the job and showed her where I got stuck searching UMI (the thesis was a bit too old for easy online searching without a sub) but I also showed her that it was available from the university library itself. She screwed up her face, almost said yuk, emailed UMI directly and passed their no on to the reader without bothering to investigate getting it directly from the uni or passing that info on to the reader. I really feel like pulling the reader aside separately and giving him info but it could backlash really badly.

My lib'n is finally starting to get stuck into the idea that she has to do the promotion of the library. We've been given a stay, we aren't closing straight away, but one of the conditions is that the library has to be promoted. She's been moaning for days, resisting this, saying all sorts of silly things about other people not taking on the responsibility. You'd never believe she's running this library! If this library actually manages to survive it will be in spite of her not because of any effort she's put in. Today is the first time in two weeks I've heard her change her tune. She got a folder about library promotion from another library and it has finally sparked ideas. We actually had quite a lively discussion. I've never run a promotion campaign before but I know about it and helped out. I've also seen some excellent people in action. She was really taken with the idea of the elevator speech, 15-20 seconds of promotion. She said that it was an elevator speech that managed to get the library moved out of the basement years ago. I like waylaying people for ten minute lobbying. I'm trying to push her to push information out to our clients. She seems to be expecting them to come to us, but she sort of understands that isn't the way it works. I think she's also a bit scared of the consequences of promotion - what if we end up with too much work???

Scenario three. A small government library, part of a department that was absorbed by another department (thereby becoming an office instead of a department), that already has a library of it own. Both these libraries are at either ends of a city. The collections are quite different but there is some overlap in interest and they have both borrowed from each other for years. The absorbed library had a lovely but slightly introverted lib'n who never had to promote the services of the library before because it was a conveniently small organisation and she was located in a conveniently central location, everyone liked her and used the library. Promotion itself really wasn't a problem here until they were absorbed and faced with a mega dept determined to cut costs everywhere and a top dog who didn't know her and never visited her library. When they decided they only needed one library per mega dept she just didn't have enough experience to even make a case for staying open and really didn't have the interest - she was a year off retiring. They kept the library open for that year with her working by herself and simply closing the library when she needed time off.

Another library gone. More library staff positions gone. Another whole building of dept staff who are now having trouble getting their information needs met.

Scenario one: Small satellite university library with highly specialised collection under threat of closure. Dedicated lib’n with guts and nous for promotion. Constantly promotes the collection and tools to staff and students, which includes training.

Scenario two: Small satellite university library with highly specialised collection under threat of closure. Cynical lib’n who doesn’t like the students or staff (or possibly any other human) the physical library, collection or her job. Never talks to anyone about new tools, never does training, hides out the back and leaves everything up to her junior staff.

Guess which library is cut? The first one got so much support from the staff and students that management decided to leave it alone. Library staff are often the biggest threat to the existence of libraries. It constantly amazes me that such a high percentage of library staff don’t promote their library and don’t see promotion as either needed or part of their job.

Ok, Blacktown Library finally got their catalogue online which is totally delightful. I now have a full list of all the Australian science fiction authors they hold and I'm slowly working my way through them! Most of the other books I borrow on impulse after giving myself a while to browse and only stopping when the pile of books starts getting to heavy.

The last bit of the catalogue on the net puzzle is logging on to renew loans and make reservations ... I ring to activate my pin number, I had to do that last time I dealt with Spydus at Parramatta Library, but they said I didn't have to do that it was automatically set to my birth date, ddmmyy. Very straight forward, but it didn't work. Checked everything, retyped my birthday in case I made a typo. Still didn't work. Rang a different branch in case that staffer was mistaken but I got the same story. The suggestion was to take my card into a branch & see if they could work it out there. So off I go to Mt Druitt, still the same story, but after a couple of minutes of fussing she says "did you put the a5/ in front of your number and the a after? Yes I know it's not printed on the card but it's the code that shows it's a borrower barcode ... " Ah. You'd think that would be standard info over the phone or it would be on the web site ... nooooo. Never mind, fixed now. And the interesting thing about it is that at Parra there is a prefix printed on the card, but you leave it off when you are logging on ... Never mind, really, never mind...

The reference for the article I wrote about yesterday is One more sermon on synergy by Paul Ludwick, Public Management, March 2005. http://www.icma.org/pm/8702/index.cfm but I don't think the article is free online.

The manager covering our library and records came back off leave yesterday. She popped in to say hello this afternoon, luckily while my lib'n was at lunch. We talked about some of the troubles she is having with my lib'n. I didn't go into detail about the things she has said to me, but the manager knows I have a difficult time with her. I also told her I'm applying for another job. Jokingly she asked me not to go, but I just said I have to get off the contract onto a job where I get paid leave. In May I will have been working full time for a whole year. The thought of working for another year or more without a paid break is something I just can't take. She understood and gave me her blessing, offering to be my referee. I pointed out it would be a good opportunity to get away from having a contract like mine anyway, it's so expensive, nearly half the money the dept pays goes to the contracting company, and management would think it wonderful. If she can't get approval for a permanent strait away she can always advertise for a temp under contract to the dept instead of to an outside company. She told me she really values my work and understands that most of the work there is done by me. It's a big relief to get that positive feedback from everyone else after going through such a stressful time with my brat.

Now this manager is definitely focused on the team.